Black Ink: Literary Legends on the Peril, Power, and Pleasure of Reading and Writing

A passion for books pervades every page of this anthology of black writers’ reflections on reading and writing. Without the weight of a hefty textbook, this anthology acts as an enticing introduction to African-American writing from the 19th century to the present. Oliver’s approach is kaleidoscopic, encompassing Solomon Northrup clandestinely making ink by “boiling white maple bark,” Frederick Douglass swapping bread with poor white children for reading lessons from them, Martin Luther King discovering Thoreau and Gandhi, and Stokely Carmichael discovering African history. Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, and Zora Neale Hurston are here, along with such non-U.S.-born writers as Edwidge Danticat and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Oliver (Song for My Father) keeps the focus sharply on matters literary: Jamaica Kincaid mourns the loss of her childhood library to a storm, Terry McMillan finds an Afro-American-literature class in his first-year college course catalogue, and Ta-Nehisi Coates gorges himself on Howard University’s library. Additionally, Junot Díaz describes seeking, and then creating, “a safe supportive environment” for writers of color, and Colson Whitehead issues witty and practical writing rules. This work of discovery, recovery, and uncovering is, for any reader, an eye-opener. (Feb.)